How to work with someone who may have an auditory processing disorder?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:31:26 -0800

I work with someone who I believe has an auditory processing disorder. Help me figure out how to work more efficiently and effectively with her. (Anonymous because my username and workplace are connected, and I want to protect my coworker's privacy.)

My colleague works in a crucial capacity on our team; for as long as I've worked with her (5+ years) she has created a pattern of problems through more or less ongoing communication breakdowns. This has been noticed by virtually everyone who's worked with her for any length of time (supervisors, peers, and subordinates alike): she seemingly lacks the ability to communicate effectively, follow instructions, understand multi-step tasks (and the cause and effect of each step), and organize large amounts of information; all of this is coupled with a marked tendency to be very literal, highly sensitive, and an inclination for secrecy (which I've only recently realized is to cover up the work she says she's done, but often hasn't -- until the last minute, which inevitably creates a crisis, at which point we all pitch in to get the job done).

It suddenly hit me today that some of this was strikingly similar to a child in my family who has been diagnosed with dyslexia and an auditory processing disorder. In googling it a little, I found this description of the disorder; the integration and prosodic subtypes fit her to a T.

No one is interested in getting her fired or demoted (including her supervisors); she is a dear, lovely woman on a personal level and highly committed, hardworking, and knowledgeable within her specialty on a professional level. But it has reached the point where entire projects are breaking down (we're now having to hire freelancers to take on part of her workload in order to meet our deadlines), and all of us on the team are pretty much at our wits' end. How can we work with her more effectively and efficiently? Obviously, it seems that giving her written instructions is better than verbal; are there other things to be considered? Almost everything I've seen online so far has been along the lines of "how to help your child in school," which obviously isn't relevant under the circumstances.

Help me communicate better in informal settings...

pearl228 — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:59:17 -0800

Humble mefite seeking tips for learning to express herself better (specifically, without being too quiet, sounding too serious, or inadvertently coming off as arrogant or self-centered) in the following scenarios.. 1.) When conversing about a topic that is unfamiliar or, if moderately familiar, then something that she has not thought about in depth before.

2.) When answering simple questions about herself, or, describing oneself in a somewhat informal, but perhaps professional or adult setting--the online equivalent of writing one's own LinkedIn profile.

3.) When an off the cuff response is required!

In short, I am very bright, somewhat shy, and struggle with processing issues that affect my ability to process new and complex information, and to verbalize thoughts about such information in a relatively short period of time (as in conversation).

Writing has never been a problem, nor has language in general. I can give a great speech or presentation provided I have time to prepare. When I do open my mouth in class or in a meeting, I'm often praised for asking insightful questions or making interesting observations. Problem is, the latter doesn't happen often enough.

If you were to talk to me at a party, you probably wouldn't notice anything amiss. I perform very well in familiar situations, and I'm able to engage in very high level discussion of topics I've thought about carefully. I also make great eye contact and smile often.

It's when an unfamiliar or only moderately familiar topic comes up in conversation, or when someone asks me something simple (example: "What's your favorite painting?") that I haven't thought about in a while that I'm really thrown.

In these situations, I either (a) blank, (b) give an answer but be struggling with the processing too much to avoid excessive use of I, me, my, etc., and end up rambling and sounding self-absorbed, and/or overly serious, (c) start by making an argument that I'm not really sure about, perhaps stating opinion as fact without meaning to, or sounding arrogant and uninformed, in addition to coming across as inarticulate, simply to give some kind of answer...

As someone who can over-analyze things (innocent whistle...!) from time to time, I've heard plenty of the standard advice (try not to use I as much, admit when you don't know something, and so on). What's more, I make a conscious effort to follow this advice! However, it doesn't seem to be quite enough.

This is something I treat as an ongoing endeavor, and I realize that improvement will require lots of hard work. I try to get as much practice as possible.

That being said, do you have any suggestions? Any advice (perhaps commonly offered yet very wise, or less often heard)? Are there any good books about this, preferably with explicit examples of wording or strategies for performing better in the aforementioned scenarios (deflecting questions with self-deprecating humor, for instance)?

Thanks for reading!

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How to work with someone who may have an auditory processing disorder?

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